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Cold Weather is No Fun – Unless You’re a Heating Engineer!

February 02, 2017 by Alison Chappell

Winter is officially here and it’s cold outside. No one likes being cold. Unless you’re a penguin, or a heating engineer.

As a provider of technology to the heating service industry, I have a conflict of mind. The product I sell is reliant on boilers breaking down, which they do – usually in winter. I love the fact that heating engineers use PartsArena and as such it makes my job fulfilling and I get to feed my cats. But at the same time I have to pretend that I like cold weather and I’m not very good at pretending.

Whilst engineers thrive on the influx of business out of everyone else’s misery it’s easy to see this is a yin and yang situation. In the few colder months when they’re literally rushed off their feet, it is a prime opportunity for them to make up for the lesser amount of business over the summer months. Preventative maintenance keeps things ticking over but nonetheless, the old proverb ‘make hay whilst the sun shines’ doesn’t exactly apply to heating engineers.

In order to thrive and make the best out of someone else’s bad situation, engineers need all the support they can get. After all, a fast turnaround on service calls means either more work or an earlier finish (although the former should apply!). Plus, the sooner they get the heat back on, the happier the customer!

By having the best mobile technology at hand, an engineer can work more productively, faster, cost effectively and ultimately be more professional. Which is why I’m often surprised when I hear that this isn’t being embraced, as why would anyone not want to work better and earn more money?

Of course, mobile tools need to be versatile, supporting everyone from the least “techie” person to companies who want a full-blown field service management solution. Tools like PartsApp, HeatArena and PartsArena Pro are great for this purpose, because they can work standalone or integrated with an existing platform.

As well as offering mobile parts identification tools, systems like TradeCounter support stockists in their branches. Increasingly, merchants are embedding PartsArena on their websites as well to better aid engineers in accurately identifying the correct parts and ordering them quickly. At the end of the day, Infomill’s goal is to ensure that there’s something to help all engineers work better, faster and more accurately this winter.

Me, I’m just hoping that Infomill will produce an air conditioning parts identification app, so then I don’t have to have conversations through gritted teeth about enjoying the cold spell! Maybe I could be sent to the Maldives to do some market research on air conditioning units… now there’s an idea!